News Items: A new "future" movie released this week has children being recruited for a spectacle where they fight to the death. Former Vice President Cheney receives a heart transplant.

There is something about homo sapiens and the spectacle of death -- they are fascinated ... spellbound by it. In the Orient and Greece, they simulated it in theater. The trained actors, not easily replaceable, could reenact it night after night. The Romans played it for real as the slave empire considered inferior gladiators expendable. Not so for the barbarians who sacked Rome. They had seen enough of that civilization, and gladiators soon disappeared from the scene. Well, not quite. Any little slight could lead to a duel ...

Fast forward to the present, and for all the mayhem in the movies, there is the reassurance that the dead and bleeding will dust themselves off and get ready for a second take. But the overpopulated, under-resourced future is a different story. While the little boys prepare to fight and die, the old in a retirement community are forced to play a deadly lottery. Space is limited to a thousand but intake is greater than departures, so, Saturday night is suicide night, drawn by lots the day before ... the most funny and entertaining -- for laughter is at a premium -- receiving prize money donated by residents and sent to their family. ....................

Vice President Cheney, codenamed VIPRE by his Secret Service detail, is recovering and in fine spirits after receiving the heart of a 14-year old killed in a skateboarding accident.

I don't know what's gotten into me but I feel an enormous swelling of affection; I am bursting with love. It's a feeling quite alien and unknown to me, and I must admit to being a trifle scared and vulnerable. But it also feels wonderful! Come close, I want to hug all of you -- especially the young nurses. I see where Bill Clinton was coming from. Ha! Ha!